A Bittersweet Arrival In Germany

We left our fruitpicking home away from home on Sunday 13th of September in search of Germany. However after just 30 mins of driving we felt extremly tired and spent the best part of the day asleep on a McDonald’s car park…not a great start.

We spent the next few days doing spots of driving thorugh an immense thundrstorm that seemed to follow us where ever we went. After 3 months hot and dry weather in Spain it felt like a thirst quenching drink after a walk in the dessert.

By Tuesday we had passed the border and finally arrived in Germany.

Unfortunately this happened at 5pm, mid rushhour in central Friedberg. A very busy, vey populated university city.

With no map of Germany and stress building, our nerves started to frey as we couldn’t find a way out of the stretching traffic. Trams were tooting their horns, cyclists were all over the road and there were pedestrians crossing at every opportunity. Then came the icing on the cake.

We were pulled over by two german policemen in a patrol car. They asked us to follow them, which we did all the way to a police station where we were asked to produce our documents and I.d. The van was searched and we were asked a lot of questions.

Before we knew it, Joe was being accused of taking drugs and driving. Apparently because of his small pupils. We were both very supprised and to be honest a little amused at the situation.

They seemed very sure Joe was on some sort of drugs and even went as far as interrogating us before producing a drugs test.

I laughed extensivly at this news and was looking forward to seeing the looks on their faces when we passed the test. Joe wasn’t as thrilled.

Joe had to wee in a cup in the van while the police officers and I waited outside, trying to hide the smug look on my face.

The situation for me became more and more rediculous, something interessting to write about perhaps, a little story to tell when we arrived home.

Then the results came back.

The police said that the test had been passed on everything but the reading for THC was dubious and suggested that Joe had smoked some weed a day ago.

The situation went from a joke to actually quite frightening, the test results had to be impossible . They said things like ..we know you are lying , we know you have been smoking weed, when did you do it..etc

Knowing the results were impossible I had a very very sick feeling that we were being stictched up. They had to be lying. Either this or the test simply doesn’t work. We were bewildered.

Joe endured 10 more minutes of interregation, they were trying there hardest to persuade Joe into confessing to having taken the substance.

They even showed us the test results and explained how the test works. Eventully they said that the results were not conclusive enough to led to any sort of coniction.

At this point it became clear that they them self did not believe that Joe had taken drugs and were simpy using scare tactics to force us into a confession.

We assumed because we were a young couple, Joe with long hair and my nose ring driving and old hippyish looking van they thought they would give it a whirl.

I became vey angry and a little confrontational, we were both innocent. Having endured a terrible welome into Germany after just 40 mins of driving. The discussion about drugs continued, wee even showed them some methol Ricola sweets in the hope that this could have been the culprit. This bought a little light heartedness to the situation as we all stopped and laughed for a while.

Just when the whole thing was becoming too much, one of the police officers spilt the whole cup of Joe’s wee sample all over the camper. I couldn’t help but laugh at first but this was quickly followed by more anger. He said sorry but we were still not free to go and clear up the mess they has made.

It felt like a complete violation, we had been in Germany less than 40 mins.

We had been stuck in horrid traffic, almost arrested for an offence that we hadn’t commited and had a policemen poking around inside our home and spilling wee all over our carpet.

It wasn’t exacltly what I pictured the night before whilst reading through various Grimms tales.

We were eventually allowed to go but it took us close to two hours to escape the traffice of fiburg. We will NOT be returning in a hurry.

We left the city with a sour taste in our mouth feeling like vicitms.

The further we got away from Freiburg however ,the better we felt, large towns and football piches become small villages and and huge forests. The Black Forest.

We drove through small villages of the Black Forest, Halsach, Hauach, Wolfach and finally Shiltach.

We had arrived in Germany at a great time of the year, people everywhere are celebrating Oktoberfest. Pumpkins and decorations are on sale in every shop, the real old traditions of Germany are out in force.

Adorable heart shaped cakes with icing writing are displayed in all the shop windows and dirdles and leghosen are on sale.

People are embracing all the things Joe and I were looking forward to seeing. It was the folksy Germany we had envisioned.